Rate My Professor Nate Bicak

Nate Bicak is an Associate Professor of Interior Design in the College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Design in Interior Design in 2007 and a Master of Architecture in 2010, both from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where his master's thesis focused on Generating Public Space: An Intermodal Transit Center for Austin, TX. Bicak joined the UNL faculty in 2016 as an Assistant Professor after serving in the same role at Radford University from 2013 to 2016, where he secured grant funding for an interdisciplinary tiny house design/build class and established campus maker spaces. Prior academic roles at UNL include full-time Lecturer (2012-2013), part-time Lecturer (2011), and Graduate Teaching Assistant (2007-2010). His professional practice includes Lead Designer at Dwellings Co., an affordable housing startup in Blacksburg, Virginia (2014-2015); Design Director and Co-Founder of Narrative Design Studio in Lincoln, Nebraska (2011-2013); and Design Intern at RDG Planning and Design in Omaha (2006). Bicak teaches courses in residential design, retail and hospitality design, material application, building codes, construction methodologies, and construction documentation. His research interests center on the application of making in design education, makerspaces, and the integration of emerging technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles in professional design practice. He is a member of the Carnegie Mellon MakeSchool Alliance.

Bicak's scholarly contributions include peer-reviewed articles such as 'Affordable Access: the Economic Impacts of Makerspaces' (Affordable Urbanism, 2020), 'Makerspaces: Public as Client' (Client Shaped Urbanism, 2018), and co-authored 'The Design and Testing of a Student Prototyped Homeless Shelter' (Journal of Interior Design, 2017). He has delivered numerous peer-reviewed presentations at conferences including IDEC, EDRA, and NeoCon on topics like UAVs in design, collaborative studios, and hand-making in digital ideation. Bicak has received the 2026 IDEC Teaching Excellence Award for his interdisciplinary collaborative studios engaging real-world community challenges across Nebraska; Honorable Mention in the 2017 CIDA Award for Excellence for the Learning Spaces Collaborate Studio; Douglass Architecture Professor appointment (2020-2022); and Research Development Fellow (2018-2019). His ASSIST Studio collaborations have produced tangible impacts, such as student designs adopted for the Sandhills Townhomes affordable housing project in Valentine, Nebraska (2022). Bicak has chaired faculty searches, served on strategic planning task forces, and contributed to community engagement through service-learning with Prairie Pines nature conservancy.